The newspapers have been full of stories about China lately, and I think we’ll be seeing more in the months to come. On the political page, Bill Clinton is pushing Congress to bestow permanent normal trade relations on China. In a speech at Johns Hopkins University last week, the president said giving permanent trade status to the Chinese is the best way to ensure that country makes strides toward democracy.
Mr. Clinton says he sees a new China, where faxes, e-mail and the Internet guarantee an explosion of democracy and predicted that the Communist Party’s efforts to contain an on-line democratic movement will be like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall.
It was a good speech, and the points Mr. Clinton raised are like those he raised in a similar speech in 1994. Problem is, in the six years since that first speech, the cause of freedom in China has not grown. China’s record on human rights is not better than it was, it’s much, much worse.
Here’s a sampling of other stories about China from just last week:
– The CIA and the FBI report Chinese espionage activities in the U.S. have grown substantially in the last 10 years, including espionage via computer networks. It seems our intelligence agencies are trying to nail a little Jell-O of their own.
– The citizens of Taiwan go to the polls Saturday to elect a new president. Communists on the mainland are warning that if the new government does not commence reunification talks quickly enough, China will invade Taiwan.
– In a related story, China is demanding that the U.S. immediately cut all military aid to Taiwan.
– In western China, a Chinese Muslim, Rebiya Kadeer, was sentenced to eight years in jail. She was arrested last year as she was trying to meet with a U.S. congressional delegation to discuss human rights abuses against Chinese Muslims.
– Speaking of spiritual movements, the Chinese government continues to repress the Falun Gong movement, sentencing its leaders to many years in jail. Tomorrow is the 41st anniversary of the flight of Dalai Lama from Tibet, a country China continues to occupy and oppress.
– There was a story in Sunday’s paper about Xu Jin, the daughter of Chinese dissident Xu Wenli. Mr. Xu was sent to prison for 12 years in 1981 because he advocated for democracy. Released in 1993, Mr. Xu was arrested again in 1998 and this time sentenced to 13 years in prison. If Xu Wenli is the Jell-O of democracy, he’s been nailed to the wall twice.
A quick look around the globe reveals how naive it is to think a cell phone or modem equals inevitable democracy. That hasn’t been the case in Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan. It hasn’t worked in Serbia or Malaysia or Indonesia. Why should China be any different?
No, the driving force behind Bill Clinton’s push to grant permanent normal trade relations with China is based on something much older than the Internet. It’s greed. The People’s Republic of China represents a billion potential customers and the captains of American industry are aching to sell a billion thighmasters or snow tires or game boys or boxes of Hamburger Helper or, for that matter, Jell-O.
The business of America is business and we don’t care how much blood is on the customer’s hands as long as they carry cash.
Nailing Jell-O to the Wall
The newspapers have been full of stories about China lately, and I think we’ll be seeing more in the months to come. On the political page, Bill Clinton is pushing Congress to bestow permanent normal trade relations on China. In a speech at Johns Hopkins University last week, the president said giving permanent trade status to the Chinese is the best way to ensure that country makes strides toward democracy.
Mr. Clinton says he sees a new China, where faxes, e-mail and the Internet guarantee an explosion of democracy and predicted that the Communist Party’s efforts to contain an on-line democratic movement will be like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall.
It was a good speech, and the points Mr. Clinton raised are like those he raised in a similar speech in 1994. Problem is, in the six years since that first speech, the cause of freedom in China has not grown. China’s record on human rights is not better than it was, it’s much, much worse.
Here’s a sampling of other stories about China from just last week:
– The CIA and the FBI report Chinese espionage activities in the U.S. have grown substantially in the last 10 years, including espionage via computer networks. It seems our intelligence agencies are trying to nail a little Jell-O of their own.
– The citizens of Taiwan go to the polls Saturday to elect a new president. Communists on the mainland are warning that if the new government does not commence reunification talks quickly enough, China will invade Taiwan.
– In a related story, China is demanding that the U.S. immediately cut all military aid to Taiwan.
– In western China, a Chinese Muslim, Rebiya Kadeer, was sentenced to eight years in jail. She was arrested last year as she was trying to meet with a U.S. congressional delegation to discuss human rights abuses against Chinese Muslims.
– Speaking of spiritual movements, the Chinese government continues to repress the Falun Gong movement, sentencing its leaders to many years in jail. Tomorrow is the 41st anniversary of the flight of Dalai Lama from Tibet, a country China continues to occupy and oppress.
– There was a story in Sunday’s paper about Xu Jin, the daughter of Chinese dissident Xu Wenli. Mr. Xu was sent to prison for 12 years in 1981 because he advocated for democracy. Released in 1993, Mr. Xu was arrested again in 1998 and this time sentenced to 13 years in prison. If Xu Wenli is the Jell-O of democracy, he’s been nailed to the wall twice.
A quick look around the globe reveals how naive it is to think a cell phone or modem equals inevitable democracy. That hasn’t been the case in Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan. It hasn’t worked in Serbia or Malaysia or Indonesia. Why should China be any different?
No, the driving force behind Bill Clinton’s push to grant permanent normal trade relations with China is based on something much older than the Internet. It’s greed. The People’s Republic of China represents a billion potential customers and the captains of American industry are aching to sell a billion thighmasters or snow tires or game boys or boxes of Hamburger Helper or, for that matter, Jell-O.
The business of America is business and we don’t care how much blood is on the customer’s hands as long as they carry cash.